1. Technical Field
This disclosure relates to processor operation, and more particularly to mechanisms for detecting core hang.
2. Description of the Related Art
Today's modern processors still occasionally suffer misprocessing errors that cause the processor to stop executing instructions, which is referred to as hanging. To avoid complete crashes in the event of a hang, many conventional processors employ some type of hang detection mechanism. Some conventional hang detection mechanisms use a timer that is sourced from a core clock. If the processor does not execute any instruction at the end of some number of timer pulses, the detection logic flags a hang condition. However, due to the complexity of many processors, there may be situations that legitimately take longer than some predefined number of timer pulses, and which may not be accounted for in these conventional detection mechanisms. More particularly, chip multiprocessors are one example in which a conventional hang detection mechanism may not consistently detect a hang condition, since each of the cores may operate at different and/or variable frequencies and voltages, for example.